hy Christian Huygens, . 
this may be, the above mentioned dates are sufficient to sho\f: 
that. Huygens had no, knowledge of it when he, publisl^ed.bis 
description. In Anecdota^ written hj himself, he only saysj 
“ Post nostrum libellum in Italiam, demissum figuras per, .Bnll^ 
aldum a Cardinali, MediceO; (Principe Leopoldo). missas : qua- 
rum Galilei alteram ; sed difficih machinal ione, ut non, mirum 
non successisse.” {Leyden MSS.) 
4. We next come to Becker’s narrative of his having, about 
the year 1677, met at Augsburg, Treflet, watchmaker of the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany, at the period we are considering, 
who told him he had been the first who made a pendulum-clock 
{horologium pendulum),, Florence, in the spirit {instinQtu) of 
Galileo Galilei, of which a, specimen was sent to Holland. A 
remark here naturally suggests itself, why no mention is made 
of his son Vincenzio, who is admitted by all the Italian writers 
either to have actually directed Trefler in the construction of 
tire work, attributed to him, or at least to have a prior claim to 
an attempt of the same nature. It might lead us to suspect, 
that; the whole statement refers to the much earlier, period of 
1636, and alludes to the single pendulum offered by Galileo to 
the States^General, and called by him, as we have already seen, 
oruolo, of which Trefler, being a workman, might have made 
the first ; and this would reconcile it to what is added of its 
having been made in Holland, as the only communication bn 
the subject was made at that time. 
But I shall not dwell on this conjecture, as something was 
certainly made afterwards by this Trefler, though the date 
and history of its construction are involved in great perplexity. 
That a clock with a pendulum, bearing the name of Trefler as 
maker, was produced, we have not only the authority of Frisi, 
(Elogio^ p. 129.) but the testimony of Perelli, Professor of 
Mathematics at Pisa, who gave a description of it (Tiraboschi, 
p. 157.), which, however, I have unfortunately not been hble to 
procure. The clock was smd still to exist at Pisa in 1774, .and 
may possibly have been preserved to this time. . The Italian 
writers differ very much as to its origin. Perelli and Brenna 
{Vita, p. 77.) think, that it is the very clock devised by Vincen- 
zio Galilei, on the suggestion of his father, rand executed under 
his direction, by Trefler, in 1649. Others, however, maintain^ 
